U. N. And Marijuana Where Is The Science?
A Marijuana Leaf
I’m a big fan of CNN’s Lou Dobbs. I watch the show regularly and while I have my own views on most things Lou Dobbs covers, I agree with him. So when this slight mention of the U.N. and a Marijuana report came up I was all ears waiting to see what he had to say. I know Lou Dobbs isn’t a fan of drug use so I knew the coverage had to be something that had recently come to light. I wasn’t disappointed. However, here Lou Dobbs and I have vastly different views on the subject.
Cannabis sativa is the scientific name for this plant. The uses of which are not just hallucinogenic. Clothing made from Hemp, (the stem part of the plant) would never wear out. Can’t have that in a world that says it needs to go green… Other uses include everything from ship nails to food. The stalk has two parts; Bast and Hurd. The bast is what can be woven into cloth and worn forever. Bast is more commonly known as HEMP.
According to HowStuffWorks:
Hemp Products
The marijuana plant has many uses. Its stiff, fibrous stalk can be used to make lots of products, from food to ship sails. The stalk is comprised of two parts — the hurd and the bast. The bast provides fibers that can be woven into many fabrics. These fibers (also called hemp) are woven to create canvas, which has been used to make ship sails for centuries.
The hurd provides pulp to make paper, oil to make paints and varnishes, and seed for food. Marijuana plants produce a high-protein, high-carbohydrate seed that is used in granola and cereals. Hemp oil and seed contain only trace amounts of psychoactive chemicals.
Owning hemp products, such as hemp rope or a hemp shirt, is legal. However, it is illegal to grow or possess marijuana in plant or drug form in the United States. Possession of the cannabis plant or marijuana seeds is punishable by fines and possible jail sentences.
Think of all the things you could do away with if you could grow this stuff at home. A little knowledge of how to prepare the plant for clothing and paper products and your budget spent at the store would dramatically decrease. And then there are the cleaning products you can make. And none of this touches the medicinal properties of the plant.
Cannabis sativa has a recorded history in China of 10,000 years. They use it to strengthen concrete, as food, (the seeds are high in protein), for fishing bait, in birdseed mixes, and the list goes on and on. Such a useful product would seem to be of benefit to humans, yet because it has been used as a drug it is outlawed. A long list of uses can be found on Wikipedia. From hand creams to oil paint bases, from clothing to canvas, from construction to health care, there seems to be no end to the usefulness of this plant. You just won’t believe all the good things that Hemp can make or be a part of. Why then is it illegal?
But according to the Lou Dobbs show, the U.N. is all up in arms about the usage of this plant:
DOBBS: A new report tonight showing a tremendous increase in the use of marijuana in North America over the last decade. The United Nations report also warning that marijuana is much more harmful than previously reported and people are seeking treatment in record numbers. Louise Schiavone has our report.
LOUISE SCHIAVONE,CNN CORRESPONDENT : About two thirds of all the marijuana seized worldwide is seized in Mexico and the United States. Narcotics officers on the front lines say it’s a seriously underestimated problem.
RONALD BROOKS, NATL. NARCOTICS OFFICERS ASSN: Drug abuse in America is a bio-chem attack. It’s our own home-grown terrorism. It’s keeping kids from achieving their potential. It breaks up families, it fuels crime. It is truly the mother’s milk of gangs because it’s where they get their funding.
SCHIAVONE: Last year, says Brooks, millions of marijuana plants were eradicated on public land, much of it cultivated by heavily-armed Mexican drug cartels. A report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime finds that while opium and cocaine production are declining globally, marijuana seizures in North America are rising. More than 3.5 million kilograms of marijuana was seized in North America in 2007 according to the U.N. study, roughly 2.2 million in Mexico and about 1.5 million in the United States.
And while there’s an ongoing debate of therapeutic use of marijuana for the seriously ill, doctors advice that marijuana can damage the brain.
DR. DENISE GREENE, PSYCHIATRIST: Long term side effects of chronic marijuana use, psychologically, are depression, and anxiety. So anyone who certainly has unrelying psychiatric illnesses should not be using marijuana on top of that.
SCHIAVONE: The U.N. report says marijuana is more harmful than commonly believed. Narcotics officer Brooks said today’s marijuana is deliberately cultivated to pack a punch that is 10 times stronger than it was in the ’70s.
SCHIAVONE: Lou, doctors tell us that marijuana can trigger an earlier onset of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in teenagers with a predisposition for them. For the general population, marijuana can be associated with psychosis, impaired memory and Lou, there are studies examining the correlation between consistent marijuana use and Alzheimer’s Disease later in life.
DOBBS: And the source of — the origin of that report is the United Nations, that’s worth repeating, I think. Louise Schiavone, thank you very much, appreciate it. Well, it’s also worth repeating that Mexico remains the major source of marijuana, methamphetamines, cocaine and heroin into the United States.
If Lou Dobbs is depending on the word of a psychiatrist I’ll keep my own counsel thank you very much! These quacks are a bunch of nutcases whose diagnosis depends on human behavior to give them validity! For a clearer picture on the art of psychiatry, view this video: Click HERE: Maybe this will open a few eyes…
However, I did look up schizophrenia and regular brains to see if I could see a difference. Also of note is that the tests were run with HEAVY usage of marijuana smokers, not normal usage. By normal I mean once or twice a day for relaxation purposes and not continuous chain smoking.
Schizophrenic brain and normal brain both male and female. http://www.schizophrenia.com/research/schiz.brain.htm
I tried to find a medical definition for could since I know that the word *cause* in the medical world is different than for the rest of us. For us, cause equals something. Like carcinogens equal cancer or CAUSE cancer. But in the medical world cause means something very different. Cause for the scientific community means “an increased risk of, or, may be associated with.” They know full well that the average person has a totally different understanding of this definition so why do they use it? Why would they even have it??? The same holds true for lawyers.
This report from the U.N. doesn’t contain any definitions whatsoever. And while there seems to be a long list of contributors, there are no reference marks or numbers attached to their report. For example in the Forward section of the report:
In the United States, about 90 per cent of narcotic drugs were used for non-medical purposes. As drug abuse spread, an increasing number of people became familiar with the wretchedness, misery and evil connected with that affliction.
No reference is given for this claim. No explanation, no study sited, just what you see above. It doesn’t say WHICH narcotics were used, just a round figure that we are supposed to interpret as truth. Well, I have issues with this. I’ve seen time and again how fuzzy math is used to come up with numbers that are scary when the reality is actually minimal. After the forward we do have some numbering and referencing, but I have to question these. My search criteria was for anything relating to these united States. For example:
Essentially, under the 1961 Convention narcotic drugs were considered hazardous until it was proved that they were not; psychotropic drugs remained uncontrolled unless WHO advised that there was “substantial evidence” that they were liable to abuse or constituted a public health and social problem that would warrant their placement under international control.10
10 István Bayer, “Genesis and development of the international control of psychotropic substances”, paper prepared for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, United States of America, 1989, pp. 42-43.
So, the U.N. is basing their statement, which it makes an absolute, on 1 page of a document that was never published. Therefore it is impossible to verify the information that was used, check for peer reviews, or substantiate the findings. Again, this comes down to fuzzy math and misleading statements and is dependent on you taking their word for it. Not me.
33. The inconsistent implementation of provisions on cannabis control is a legal challenge of a different nature, since no Government has legalized the cultivation of cannabis for non-medical use. The original objective of the 1961 Convention was to prohibit the use of cannabis in a few countries where its non-medical use was traditional. Today, its nonmedical use has virtually disappeared, and cannabis has become the most widely used illicit drug worldwide. In the past two decades, new, more potent forms of cannabis have been developed, mostly in industrialized countries. Sophisticated growing
technologies produce cannabis with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels that are considerably higher than that of the cannabis produced during the 1980s. That development may be associated with the increased demand for cannabis-related treatment services in several countries. Apart from the known risks of smoking tobacco, with which cannabis is frequently mixed, there are indications that cannabis consumption may be associated with an increased risk of psychotic disorders and schizophrenia.33 United States of America, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health,
Preventing Drug Use among Children and Adolescents: a Research-Based Guide for Parents, Educators, and Community Leaders, 2nd ed., NIH publication No. 04- 4212(A) (Bethesda, Maryland, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 2003), p. 2.
If you were to open the link given, you will find that page 2 is blank with only a symbol on the page and this one entry:
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. National Institute of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, 6001 Executive Boulevard Bethesda Maryland 20892
Page 2 actually begins on page 9 of the report. In speaking of children and risk assessment they talk about aggressive behavior and poor self esteem as causes for those at risk. Please tell me of one child out there who doesn’t have these issues at one time or another. I recall seeing these same issues with my daughter as she was changing from a child into an adolescent. I simply have to questions such assumptions based on my own experience. My daughter has never used any drugs in her life beyond an antibiotic or ibuprofen. I would love to have someone else’s view on this.
Given these two examples, doesn’t it make you question this report just a bit? How do they make such assumptions with so little in facts to base their assumptions on. It surprises me then that CNN’s Lou Dobbs would just make such a small comment on such a huge report. Think of all the countries who are members of the U.N. and part of this drug compact. The report speaks of “rogue pharmacies which encourage drug abuse” and the use of the internet as part of this “global ring of pharmacies which are breaking international laws. (47 United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute, Counterfeiting: a Global Spread, a Global Threat (Turin, Italy, 2007). This report doesn’t site sources for the numbers they claim are there. How can I believe a report where I can’t verify the data?
Imagine how much one plant can do. Didn't the Creator make it best, first?
And then we have another report which says just about the opposite of the U.N. report. At the same convention where the U.N. issued this report, there were scientists that were asking for just the opposite.
Legalize, Tax Marijuana, Researchers Tell UN Drug Commission
VIENNA — A group of drug researchers is urging diplomats at a United Nations meeting to drop their prohibition on cannabis and allow the psychoactive substance to be sold and taxed like tobacco.
“Our message to politicians is that ‘you don’t have to worry too much about the effects of cannabis and that the kids aren’t listening to you in any case,’ ” Peter Room, a public health professor at the University of Melbourne, said today at a briefing. He helped chair a scientific committee that produced a report saying that marijuana isn’t a public health menace and that half the U.S. population born after 1970 and at least 21 years old has tried the drug.
The United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs is meeting for a second day in the Austrian capital. More than 1,400 diplomats and policy makers from 130 countries are attending.
So, here we find out that it is politicians that are making medical decisions for the rest of us, not doctors, not scientists, but those pesky politicians that seem to think they know what is best for all of us even when they couldn’t be further away from our own thoughts and feelings. How interesting. Doesn’t that just give all kinds of validity to their report? I don’t think so either. I’m getting awful sick and tired of these *self interest groups* making decisions for all of us.
There is also the fact that some very important wording is missing from the U.N. report. Words like *genetically predisposed to schizophrenia.* Genetic predisposition has an incredible impact on the findings of a study. It totally changes the picture in that you are looking more for a genetic deficiency instead of a plant based assumption. In other words, the U.N. study makes it look as though the plant is responsible for the problem when in reality it is genetics.
This report from Forbes Magazine, released on March 31, 2009 says:
Active Ingredient in Marijuana Kills Brain Cancer Cells
03.31.09, 08:00 PM EDT
Experts say finding worth further study, but patients shouldn’t light up just yetWEDNESDAY, April 1 (HealthDay News) — New research out of Spain suggests that THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — appears to prompt the death of brain cancer cells.
The finding is based on work with mice designed to carry human cancer tumors, as well as from an analysis of THC’s impact on tumor cells extracted from two patients coping with a highly aggressive form of brain cancer.
Another study done uses condensed marijuana smoke to prove it has carcinogen properties and causes cancer and tumors. But after having read this study, I can’t make hide nor hair out of their findings. Definitely NOT layman friendly. And all their findings DO NOT support their claims. Go figure… Some of the columns are left blank as in no data or the data did not support that claim.
I’d sure like to know how each of these studies can be right. However, based on the plants usage, the risks definitely do not outweigh the benefits. But I am certainly NOT going to listen to the U.N. Study or to Lou Dobbs report since no one there read the study to begin with. None of the CNN Correspondents took the time to review the report and only reported on the outcome of the meeting.
It should also be noted that these united States did NOT provide data on marijuana for the 2008 study that the U.N. did. That is reported on page 13 number 59. You’ll see what I mean when/if you pull up the linked report.
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Anyone that wants legalize pot do not care about any pro’s of pot, They just want it easier to get high!
Your daughter would rather get high because she doesnt have priorities or will power, its not cause of the drug. There are many parents across america that use it responsibly so dont go citing your daughter’s behavior as the norm because it is far from it.
My daughter would rather get high on her pot than take care of her child so don’t tell me that it is not addictive or dangerous IT IS!! It has destroyed our family and left a child motherless. You should be a shamed of yourself. You have no idea of what you talking about. Why don’t you attend a Narcotics Annomymous Meeting and see what they have to say about how harmless smoking pot can be.
Wow Nice Article
thank’s
I still remember being shocked when I read in my sociology book in college, how marijuana had become illegal in America.
It was because the U.S. Alcohol Companies had lobbied (Bribed – Pay-Ola) CONgress into making it illegal, because they couldn’t stand the competition. After all, it can grow anywhere.
Apparently, the U.S. Alcohol Companies would have lost millions, if not billions of dollars of income every year had CONgress not made the plant illegal.
CONgress is not concerned about the health of the health of the American people, they are only concerned about money, power and sex.
ok amazing
It is always about money and power and control. Congress hasn’t had the interest of We the People ahead of their own in at least 50 years. It is sad that We the People keep electing the same creepazoids to office over and over again. Until all new people, people just like you and I, get into office and we clean out our representatives and break the power structure of the elite, we will never have anyone working for us again!
Hmmm, let me guess, you drove your daughter away and that is why she has a motherless daughter. You alienated her, ostracized her, made her feel like a bad person so she left. I’ll bet you are a good christian too aren’t you? Ya, it is your kind that has gotten us where we are through fear and just plain refusing to see what is right in front of your face. Do you suppose that your daughter would be gone if pot was legal?
My sister would rather work than take care of her kids. Should she go to some kind of rehab program? What we need is a mind shift so we can start to cure the problem.
People with your intelligence are the reason we have so many problems today. You do not think, you only react. You do not care about the facts, only that someone else might enjoy something. Shame on you! BTW, ever consider learning how to speak and write?